What do our taxes pay for?

This is a serious question: what exactly do we get from the government when we pay our taxes?

Certainly, not infrastructure. The private sector builds the expressways, manages our water service, runs our airports… and we have to pay to use any of those facilities.

Our DPWH can’t be trusted to build good bridges or properly maintain existing ones. That bridge in Isabela wasn’t even officially open to the public when it collapsed. The same thing with that flyover in Iloilo which was closed to traffic before it was declared open. Now San Juanico is closed due to bad maintenance.

Peace and order? A Korean tourist was robbed in BGC, making the Korean Embassy issue a warning about travel to our beloved country. PNP washed its hands saying BGC is privately managed. Since Ayala oversees BGC, they should invest in a street surveillance system like what they have in China.

The Chinoy community had been living in fear of being kidnapped for ransom and one of them suffered that fate and was killed with his driver.

Common folks continue to adore Duterte because he made them feel safe, extra judicial killings aside. Tourists and investors hesitate to come after our main cities landed in lists of most dangerous places to visit in the world.

So, no… our taxes are not paying for proper police protection to make us feel safe. Police visibility is basic and we don’t have that.

Health care? Our leaders even stole money from our inadequately funded PhilHealth so they can fatten their wallets with pork barrel funds. That’s why most of us are worried about catching a disease requiring hospital services.

Yet, our national budget keeps on getting bigger each year, laden with pork. Because the taxes collected are not enough to cover our legitimate needs and what our legislators steal, our government increases its borrowings.

Last week, the BSP said our external debt reached $146.74 billion at end-March 2025, up by 6.6 percent from the previous quarter and up by 14 percent from the first quarter of last year.

As of April 2025, our national government’s total debt (borrowed from abroad and from local sources) is approximately P16.75 trillion, a significant increase from the P12.79 trillion debt inherited by the current administration in 2022.

At the start of PNoy’s administration in June 2010, the debt stood at P4.6 trillion, and by the end of his term in June 2016, it had risen to about P5.94 trillion. He increased the national debt by only approximately P1.34 trillion.

To service our current debt, our Treasury allocated a total of P2.05 trillion in 2025. That translates to a daily debt service of approximately P5.61 billion, to pay maturing debt and interest for current debt.

That’s five and a half billion pesos every day that cannot be spent to feed and educate our children properly… and provide health care even just for the most vulnerable.

This year, our government plans to borrow P2.55 trillion to finance its budget deficit and fund various programs and congressional whims.

Being an election year, Congress went overboard and increased the budget for DPWH by P288.65 billion in embedded pork funds, bringing its total allocation to P1.113 trillion. Also funded was the controversial Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP) which received P26.16 billion in the 2025 budget.

These additional funds were inserted during the bicameral conference committee deliberations that were held in secret, providing absolutely no transparency and accountability.

To accommodate these allocations, significant cuts were made to essential programs: The DepEd budget was reduced by P10 billion; The PhilHealth subsidies were cut by P50 billion; The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) was reduced by P50 billion.

Our taxes and growing debts should be helping DepEd respond to an estimated nationwide shortage of approximately 165,443 classrooms. This classroom deficit would require an estimated P413.6 billion, based on the cost of constructing each classroom at around P2 million (which is suspiciously bloated). However, the DepEd’s 2025 budget allocates only P29.3 billion for basic education facilities, including classroom construction.

As of 2025, we have approximately 110,000 hospital beds, with 45 percent in government-run facilities and 55 percent in private hospitals. To meet the WHO’s recommendation, the country would need to add approximately 240,000 hospital beds.

The Department of Health (DOH) estimates the need to construct an additional 6,000 primary health care facilities to adequately serve the population.

And the government still owes health care workers P10.35 billion for services rendered during the Covid emergency.

Food insecurity remains severe. SWS reports that 27.2 percent of families, approximately 7.5 million households or roughly 35 million Filipinos, are experiencing involuntary hunger as of March 2025.

While we have the potential to feed our growing population, achieving food security requires sustained investments in agriculture, disaster resilience and rural development.

Where are the cold storage facilities BBM’s agriculture secretary promised? And the satellite service to help farmers plant and market in a timely manner. That’s where our taxes and borrowings should be going.

When a government collects taxes from its people and borrows heavily to the point of mortgaging the future of generations to come, we need to see results. Borrowed money must show returns so it can be paid back.

We need to see how our taxes and debts are working to help us meet our needs. We need to see bankbooks and SALNs to see how much of our money is being pocketed by officials.

BBM has three years to reverse a growing erosion of trust in our government. He must rein in his cousin and his cabal of greedy congressmen. He must call for a timeout in corruption to arrest the downhill spiral of our country’s economy and political future.

That should include getting accountability from the Dutertes. But BBM’s friends must also keep their dirty fingers from the national treasury.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X @boochanco